Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 304, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 December 1913 — MME. MERRI'S ADVICE [ARTICLE]

MME. MERRI'S ADVICE

EXCELLENT TABLEAU FOR THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS. ; “Mistletoe Bough? May Be Employed, and If Participants Are Clever a Splendid Entertainment Will Be Assured. We are enjoying a much deserved revival of charades and tableaux and soon, 1 trust, the regular Christmas pantomime of Dickens’ time will be ours, as well as our cousins’ across the water. Nothing is prettier for this season than the poem of Thomas Haynes Bayly called the “Mistletoe Bough.” It may be read aloud to go with the tableaux, which may be arranged to be given for an admission fee or just for fun. A stage is required with the usual decorations of holly and Christmas greens and is supposed to represent the banquet hall forming the setting for the first act.

The baron’s retainers were blithe and gay, ' And keeping their Christmas holiday.

A minuet is danced to music, the bride, in wedding dress and veil, and the bridegroom being the principal figures. ll.—The second scene presents the same setting as the first The bride, leaving the assembly, runs away.

“I am weary of dancing now,” she cried; “Here tarry a moment—l’ll hide— I’ll hide.” 111. —A brief scene follows, not given in the poem, but necessary to fill out its story. There is a darkened attic, full of old boxes, furniture, spinning wheels, and the like; in the middle a large chest. The bride comes softly in with a’Tighted candle in her hand. She tries various hiding places and finally opens the chest, steps slowly in, blows out the candle and gradually lets down the lid upon her self.

IV. The fourth scene is the banquet hall as before. While the music, which continues throughout the whole production, plays quietly, the guests pass in and out, consulting in pantomime and expressing their inability to find the missing bride. V. —ln the next act the bridegroom appears as an old man, surrounded with children who watch him and seem to say in the words of the poem,

See! the old man weeps for his fairy ■ bride.

VI. —The last act shows the attic again. .A group of young people, in comparatively- modern dress, are searching through the attic, pulling out old-fashioned bonnets and hats, old gowns and books, and laughing at their quaint appearance. One of the young men finally raises the lid of the chest, and while the others start in terror he lifts out a skull, its lines partially concealed by the ragged remnants of a lace wedding veil. This poem is well known and may be found in any cyclopedia of English literature.

MME. MERRI.